I had cause recently to travel to the eastern part of the country. And it was by road. If had had any choice, I would not have travelled at all, much less by road.

Actually, I used to enjoy travelling; that was before I got married. But now, I have to send a bill to the national assembly – in my house – before I conceive any thought of travelling. I do not blame the ‘principal officer’ of the house. Who would not be afraid of losing the breadwinner of the family, especially in circumstances that can be avoided? And I am talking about travelling on Nigerian roads. 

I pretty understand my wife’s fears, and that is why I humbly submit to her ‘authority’ any time she says ‘no’ to my travelling. And that happens nine out of 10 cases. But two weekends ago, I had to travel from Lagos to Oguta in Imo State for the traditional wedding of my nephew. In the first place, he resents my introducing myself as his uncle because, according to him, there are no small uncles. But whether or not he likes it, I am his father’s brother, and that makes me his uncle. And I had to go and prove that in Oguta.

A bus had been hired to convey those going from Lagos , and if I had got wind of the kind of bus that had been paid for, I would have changed my mind. Worse still, if I had known how terrible the roads were, I would have sought an alternative means of getting to Imo State. By the time I realised it, however, it was too late to change my mind.

Innocently, I had thought that since Diezani Allison-Madueke had shed some tears over the Benin-Sagamu road when she was appointed Minister of Transport, things would have changed by now. After all, it is five or six months after that ceremonial weeping and wailing by the rivers of Babylon . But I am sorry to say that what I saw and experienced on that road shocked me.

Those who ply that road regularly are quick to point out, however, that a lot has changed. At least, from the eight to ten hours they were spending on the road, they now spend ‘only’ about five hours. But when you consider that we are talking about a 300-kilometre road, then you will understand that there is a lot of room for improvement. I guess my problem is that the last time I travelled to Benin was in October 2005. In spite of the fact that the roads were already ‘bad’ then, I made the journey in about four hours.

The most disheartening part of the story is that whatever you think is wrong with the Benin-Sagamu road automatically becomes  mere child’s play once you enter the Onitsha-Owerri road. There are signs that work is in progress on the road, but I gathered it has been like that for about two years. The situation was so bad that we could hardly travel one kilometre without encountering a standstill on a road that is supposed to be an expressway.

My cousin who flew into Owerri said it took her about one hour thirty minutes to get to Oguta, a journey I learnt should not take more than thirty minutes. Now, I have a choice as to whether or not to travel because of bad roads, but what happens to our Ibo brothers who are on the road every other day?  

And I have heard all the explanations about why our roads can never be good. But I ask myself: who constructs the roads that endure in other places? At least, God does not come down from heaven to construct the roads that are durable in the civilized world. And there is the Benin-Asaba road which is a delight to every road traveller. Does it not carry the same traffic as other roads? Or is it ghosts that come to protect or maintain it?

I do not want to lay the blame of our worrisome roads strictly at the doorsteps of our federal authorities. Most of them are federal roads, all rights, but why should a state governor watch his people take their exit to the great beyond in droves through road accidents without showing any concern? What about the senators and other national and house of assembly members who covet and divert public funds to build mansions in their constituencies without bothering about the welfare of their people?

One of them was even driven in his Hummer car, with some gun-brandishing mobile police and siren-blaring escorts through the artificial traffic on the Onitsha-Owerri expressway. I asked myself: what did he expect people to do? Jump from the one bad lane that could not take everybody into the lagoon or somewhere just because he wanted to drive pass?

I therefore cannot but agree with Adeola Aderounmu that apart from our leaders, something is wrong with all of us. In other places, people fight back when they are pushed to the wall. But here, we drive into the bush, to give right of way to a public official who has the power to but would not do anything about our bad roads, and come out to curse after he has passed. Now, I think we are even tired of cursing; we simply run into a hole, asking him to go with his wahala.

I honestly feel it is high time we stopped pretending to be civilised or refined in our approach to issues that concern our leaders - a people who are less than civilised in their approach to everything.         

Robot  # 1 | 13.11.2007 14:13

The most disheartening part of the story is that whatever you think is wrong with the Benin-Sagamu r...Read the full article.

Adeola Aderounmu  # 2 | 13.11.2007 14:40

Highly recommended rejoinder: Nigerian Roads, a Depic...